ActiveX在广义上是指微软公司的整个COM架构，但是现在通常用来称呼基于标准COM接口来实现对象链接与嵌入（OLE）的ActiveX控件。后者是指从VBX发展而来的，面向微软的Internet Explorer技术而设计的以OCX为扩展名的OLE控件。通过定义容器和组件之间的接口规范，如果编写了一个遵循规范的控件，那幺可以很方便地在多种容器中使用而不用修改控件的代码。同样，通过实现标准接口调用，一个遵循规范的容器可以很容易地嵌入任何遵循规范的控件。由于OLE在ActiveX控件中的应用的普及，现在OLE技术中只有少数独立于ActiveX技术，例如复合文档。

ActiveX is a software framework created by Microsoft that adapts its earlier Component Object Model (COM) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technologies for content downloaded from a network, particularly in the context of the World Wide Web. It was introduced in 1996 and is commonly used in its Windows operating system. In principle it is not dependent on Microsoft Windows, but in practice, most ActiveX controls require being run on Microsoft Windows. Most also require the client to be running on Intel x86 hardware, because they contain compiled code.